Tag: Fox News

This week, Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano claimed that the British foreign surveillance agency GCHQ helped President Barack Obama wiretap Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. The GCHQ called Napolitano’s claims “utterly ridiculous” and Fox News has reportedly pulled him from the network.

On March 20, The Los Angeles Times reported that Fox News hasn’t used Napolitano since Thursday. He was oddly absent during the network’s coverage of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearings.

Sources told the LA Times that Napolitano isn’t expected to be on the network “any time in the near future.” An anonymous source also confirmed to Heavy.com that Napolitano was “benched.”

The 66-year-old Napolitano has been at Fox News since 1998, after serving as a judge in the New Jersey Superior Court from 1987 to 1995. Napolitano, who was born in Newark, New Jersey, is not married. According to Celebrity Net Worth, he has an estimated net worth of $7.5 million.

Here’s what you need to know about Napolitano and the diplomatic incident he started.

1. Fox News Says They Have Seen no Evidence That Obama Surveilled Trump

On March 14, Napolitano appeared on Fox & Friends, claiming that Obama asked British intelligence for surveillance on Trump so it wouldn’t look like the American government was behind it, reports LawNewz. Napolitano claimed that the GCHQ, the British version of the NSA, did the heavy lifting. He also claimed that the man who ordered the surveillance “resigned three days after Trump was inaugurated.”

Napolitano didn’t say who this man was or who his sources were. However, when the New York Times tried to contact Napolitano on March 17, they instead heard from former intelligence officer Larry C. Johnson, the same former Fox News contributor who spread a 2008 hoax about Michelle Obama. Johnson told the Times that Napolitano told him to call the Times and confirm that he was one of Napolitano’s sources for the report. He claimed to have came across the information “from sources in the American intelligence community.”

On March 16, Napolitano’s claims appeared on Fox News’ website in a column, which remains unedited since it was published. However, Fox News did add a link to the GCHQ’s statement.

In his opinion piece, the former judge wrote:

Sources have told me that the British foreign surveillance service, the Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, most likely provided Obama with transcripts of Trump’s calls. The NSA has given GCHQ full 24/7 access to its computers, so GCHQ — a foreign intelligence agency that, like the NSA, operates outside our constitutional norms — has the digital versions of all electronic communications made in America in 2016, including Trump’s. So by bypassing all American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted with no Obama administration fingerprints.

Since there were reports that the U.S. government apologized for citing Napolitano’s report as evidence, Fox News has backed away from the reporting. In a statement on his show, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith said that the network has “no evidence of any kind that the now-President of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way. Full Stop.” He said that the network can’t confirm Napolitano’s “commentary.”

Shep: “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the president of the United States was surveilled at any time in any way, full stop.” pic.twitter.com/W3XkViL4ES

Although Napolitano never revealed the source for his information, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer repeated the claims during his March 16 press conference. The White House has continued to try to justify Trump’s claims on March 4 that Obama wiretapped him in 2016. The White House has said that Trump was talking about surveillance in general, and didn’t specifically mean “wiretap.”

A spokesman for the GCHQ then told the Telegraph that Napolitano’s allegations are “ridiculous.”

“Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wiretapping’ against the then president-elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored,” the spokesman said.

The Telegraph also reported that National Security Adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster and Spicer called Sir Mark Lyall Grant, Prime Minister Theresa May’s National Security Adviser, to apologize. A spokesman for the U.K. government said that they “made clear the allegations were ridiculous and received reassurances that they would not be repeated” after speaking with the U.S. government.

But then, Buzzfeed reported that the Spicer is not apologized. “I don’t think we regret anything,” Spicer told Buzzfeed.

And when Trump was asked about it by a German reporter during his press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump said, “All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didn’t make an opinion on it. That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. And so you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.”

Leaders of the intelligence committees in both houses of Congress have said they haven’t seen evidence to back Trump’s wiretapping claim.

“It’s hard for me to believe that [WTC7] came down by itself. I was gratified to see Geraldo Rivera investigating it. I’m gratified to see the people across the border interested,” Napolitano said in an interview on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ radio show. “I think 20 years from now, people will look at 9/11 the way they look at the assassination of JFK today. It couldn’t possibly have been done the way the government told us.”

Napolitano hasn’t said anything on the topic of 9/11 conspiracy theories publicly since, but in September 2016, he praised Congress for overriding Obama’s veto of a bill that would have prevented 9/11 victims and families from suing Saudi Arabia.

The veto override means “that shroud is about to be lifted by plaintiffs’ lawyers, who will bring people from the Saudi government into their offices in New York, put them under oath and ask them questions,” Napolitano said on Fox News. “This essentially becomes law in a couple of minutes. As of this very moment…survivors of 9/11 or their families can sue for damages.”

4. Napolitano Called the Decision on Trump’s First Immigration Executive Order ‘Intellectually Dishonest’

After the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate Trump’s first immigration executive order, Napolitano criticized the decision as “intellectually dishonest” and “so profoundly wrong.”

“This is an intellectually dishonest piece of work that the 9th Circuit has produced tonight, because it essentially consists of substituting the judgment of three judges for the president of the United States, when the Constitution unambiguously gives this area of jurisdiction – foreign policy – exclusively to the president,” Napolitano said on Fox News.

In a March 16 appearance on Fox & Friends, Napolitano criticized the Hawaii judge for judging the executive order on Trump’s intent. He said that the court should only judge an executive order basedd on the exact written works and not go into “psychobabble and try and figure out what the intent was.”

“Basically what the judge said last night in Hawaii was this is a Muslim ban by another name,” Napolitano said. “That’s the way I would summarize this with a very short handle on it. Without getting too much into the weeds, he basically looked at the things that candidate Donald Trump said, that our friend Mayor [Rudy] Giuliani said, that Kellyanne Conway said.”

5. Napolitano Isn’t a Fan of Abraham Lincoln

Napolitano has an unpopular opinion of President Abraham Lincoln and famously appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 2014 to defend his reasons for not liking Lincoln. He appeared on The Daily Show a month after saying on Fox News that he is a “contrarian” on Lincoln, suggesting that slavery could have been brought to an end without the bloody Civil War.

“At the time that [Lincoln] was the president of the United States, slavery was dying a natural death all over the Western world,” Napolitano told Stewart. “Instead of allowing it to die, or helping it to die, or even purchasing the slaves and then freeing them — which would have cost a lot less money than the Civil War cost — Lincoln set about on the most murderous war in American history.”

Napolitano also claimed that Lincoln enforced the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which allowed slaveowners to use the federal government to get escaped slaves back, even if they were found in a free state. Politifact rated this claim “mostly false,” noting that the law was enforced inconsistently at the start of the war.

Napolitano didn’t suddenly become anti-Lincoln in 2014. Back in 2007, he wrote The Constitution in Exile: How the Federal Government Has Seized Power by Rewriting the Supreme Law of the Land, which includes a chapter called “Dishonest Abe,” in which me makes the case that many of Lincoln’s actions were unconstitutional.

Jesse Watters is a Fox News journalist who filmed an interview with President Donald Trump earlier this week. The interview will air during his Saturday show Watters’ World at 8 p.m. ET.

Watters has been at Fox News since 2002 and has been a part of The O’Reilly Factor since 2003. He started out as a behind-the-scenes producer, but became an on-camera talent thanks to his on-the-street interviews. He got his own spin-off series Watters’ World in November 2015. Although his show is billed as a “comedic” look at news, he still nabbed a one-on-one interview with the president.

The 38-year-old Watters stirred controversy in October 2016 with an infamous segment where he interviewed residents of New York’s Chinatown. The segment was considered by some to be racially insensitive, but Watters was never punished for it.

1. Watters Called Himself a ‘Political Humorist’ After the Chinatown Segment Fallout

In October 2016, Watters filmed a segment for The O’Reilly Factor, in which he interviewed people in New York’s Chinatown. The segment was filled with racial stereotypes, both in its presentation and with the questions Watters asked. He asked his interview subjects how to bow, if the watches being sold were stolen and if a man sold herbs “for performance,” all while scenes from martial arts movies played and “Kung Fu Fighting” was heard in the background.

At the end of the segment, Bill O’Reilly and Watters sounded surprised that many of the people he talked to knew about American politics. But they also knew that the segment would be controversial.

Initially, Watters wrote a non-apology on Twitter. “My man-on-the-street interviews are meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek and I regret if anyone found offense. As a political humorist, the Chinatown segment was intended to be a light piece, as all Watters World segments are,” Watters wrote.

“I was surprised, at the time, with the blowback,” Watters told Business Insider in a December interview. “I didn’t see it coming, and that’s on me. I understand I did offend a lot of people, and I’m very sorry for that. People took issue with some of the statements I made, and some of the reaction to the Chinatown segment, and I understand that. And it’s a learning experience — I definitely learned a lot from it. But it’s a new day, and we are moving forward with it.”

2. Watters Says Bill O’Reilly Comes Up With Many of the Ideas for ‘Watters’ World’ Segments

Watters has been working for O’Reilly for over a decade, so the two have clearly developed a rapport. In an interview with Business Insider about his career, Watters said that it’s his boss who comes up with many of the ideas for Watters’ World segments.

“Usually he’ll say, like, ‘This is kind of how I want you to approach it,’ and then he’ll give me one line, and then I have to fill in the rest,” Watters told the site. “Bill is very understanding of the backdrop of the segment. I think because he was a field guy for so many years, he’s very interested in aesthetics behind the Watters’ World, where it’s being shot, why it’s being shot there.”

“I think he’s either living vicariously through me, or he’s reliving things he did back in the day,” Watters told Business Insider of O’Reilly.

Watters loves his “ambush” style man-on-the-street interviews, which have often been criticized by the media. After all, the style is usually employed more by comedians than journalists.

“I don’t pay attention to a lot of that stuff that they write,” he told Business Insider of his critics. “It doesn’t really bother me that much. I stand by my work, especially the confrontations. There are heroes and villains out there in the media landscape, in the news landscape, in the political landscape. People sometimes get called out, they react how they react. And I’m proud of what I do.”

3. His Wife Noelle Used to Host a Fox News Fashion Segment

Watters is married to Noelle Inguagiato Watters, who used to host a fashion segment on FoxNews.com called iMag Style.

As Walking Points Memo reports, in 2014, Watters said on Outnumbered that Noelle told him that she voted for President Barack Obama in 2012.

“When I was dating my wife, we were very simpatico politically,” Watters told his co-hosts. “And then all of a sudden, after 2012, she told me she voted for Obama. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! Are you kidding me?’”

It turned out she was. “She got me good,” Watters joked.

However, it’s worth noting that Politico reported back in 2012 that an FEC filing revealed that Watters donated $500 to the Obama Victory Fund 2012 and even listed “News Corp.” as his employer.

4. Journalist Amanda Terkel Accused Watters of Stalking Her While on She Was on Vacation

In 2009, Huntington Post journalist Amanda Terkel, who is now a senior political reporter for the site, accused Watters of stalking her. At the time, Terkel was writing for Think Progress and she had recently published a story about O’Reilly’s past comments on rape victim Jennifer Moore when he was slated to speak at an Alexa Foundation to support rape victims at the time.

On March 23, Terkel wrote that she was “followed, harassed and ambushed” by Watters while on vacation because she wrote a piece that O’Reilly didn’t like. She wrote that Watters and his cameraman followed her on a two-hour drive from Washington, DC to Winchester, Virginia.

“Shortly after checking into our lodgings, we emerged and immediately saw two men walking toward us calling out my name,” Trekel wrote. “Watters said he was from Fox News, but never said his or his companion’s name, nor did he say he was with The O’Reilly Factor.”

During an edited version of the segment that aired, O’Reilly called Terkel a “villain,” claiming that she was criticizing the Alexa Foundation, which she said she never did. They accused her blog of causing “pain and suffering” to rape victims.

Terkel talked about her experience with Watters on CNN in 2015:

When New Yorker writer Hendrik Hertzberg also wrote a piece criticizing O’Reilly, he was ambushed by Watters. After the segment aired, O’Reilly claimed that Hertzberg declined an invitation go on The O’Reilly Factor. “That’s an outright lie,” the writer told Politico in 2008.

5. Watters Grew Up in Philadelphia & Has a Degree in History

Watters was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut with a degree in history. His family moved to Long Island while he was in high school.

In a 2015 interview with Philly.com, Watters explained that he had initially wanted to go into finance aftr college, but he didn’t do well in that field. He then tried to work in politics directly, working for Dora J. Irizarry’s failed campaign for New York Governor.

“I got hired at Fox News, because I like politics and I like television. And one day, [Bill] O’Reilly said, ‘Watters! I want you to go down to Alabama and confront this judge,’” Watters recalled. “So I go all the way down to Alabama and run up to some judge who’d given a sex offender a soft sentence, and I ended up confronting the wrong guy, in my first-ever time in the field. So I got off to a rocky start. But after that, I kind of got the hang of things.”

Watters told Philly.com that both of his parents are liberal. “But my parents always brought me up to have discipline and respect for other people and the belief that hard work pays off,” Watters told Philly.com. “They didn’t raise me to be who I am politically, but I think they gave me a lot of the values and the resources to kind of shape my own path.”

Shepard Smith has been at Fox News since it was born in 1996. He’s currently the host of the 3:00-4:00 p.m. ET Shepard Smith Reporting.

Recently, Smith has gained notoriety as the one Fox News anchor to stand against the Donald Trump Administration. Most recently, it was Smith who had to tell viewers that Fox News had no evidence to support Andrew Napolitano‘s claims that the British government helped President Barack Obama wiretap Trump Tower last year. It was the 53-year-old Smith who defended CNN against Trump’s “fake news” insults. Smith also called out Trump for releasing a list of under-reported terror attacks.

Smith’s social media accounts are handled by his producing team. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Here’s what you need to know about Smith.

1. Smith Has Said That He’s Gay

Back in 2013, Gawker reported that Smith was dating a man, Giovanni Graziano, who was working as a producer at Fox Business at the time. Gawker continued to publish a series of articles, hoping to force Smith to eventually confirm that he’s gay.

The Daily Banter later obtained two statements, incluidng a joint statement from then-Fox News chief Roger Ailes and Smith, calling the Gawker story “100% false and a complete fabrication.”

“That’s not true. He was as nice as he could be to me. I loved him like a father,” he said. “I trusted him with my career and with ― I trusted him and trusts were betrayed. People outside this company can’t know [how painful that betrayal was]. This place has its enemies, but inside, it was very personal, and very scarring and horrifying.”

Smith also told the Huffington Post that Ailes didn’t use homophobic slurs around him, even though there are rumors that he would use slurs around rivals.

“No, never. He treated me with respect, just respect,” Smith told the Huffington Post. “I wasn’t new in the business when I came here ― I’d been doing reporting for 12 years ― but I wasn’t old in it either, and he gave me every opportunity in the world and he never asked anything of me but that we get it right, try to get it right every day. It was a very warm and loving and comfortable place.”

2. Smith Dropped Out of Journalism School to Marry an Ole Miss Classmate, Virginia Donald

According to a 2003 People Magazine profile of Smith, he attended the University of Mississippi. In 1987, he needed only two more credits to graduate, but he dropped out before he could get them to marry Virginia Donald. Even though he didn’t have a degree, he was still hired by a Panama City, Florida station as a reporter. The following year, he moved to Fort Myers to work for a station with its first satellite truck.

“It meant we could get out and cover hurricanes,” Smith told People. “I knew right then, I’ll do this forever.”

People reports that he was in Miami by 1993. That same year though, his marriage to Donald “had fallen apart,” according to the magazine. They did not have any children together.

3. Live TV Coverage of Elvis Presley’s Funeral Inspired Him to be a Journalist

The journalism event that inspired Smith to join the media might come as a surprise to some. He told the American Journalism Review in 2010 that seeing Elvis Presley’s funeral covered on live television in 1977 made him want to be a journalist. The “gadget geek,” as he calls himself, was inspired by the technology that brought the funeral into homes across the country. “I knew I wanted to do that someday,” Smith said. He was 13 years old at the time.

Smith told the American Journalism Review that he grew up in rural Mississippi, in the segregated town of Holly Springs. His mother was an English teacher and his father sold cotton. Their family fell apart in 1977, when the cotton market struggled. His parents split and his mother took Smith and his younger brother to Florida.

“Suddenly, we were transplanted,” Smith told the American Journalism Review. “It was a traumatic experience. Our family lived in the same house for generations.”

He return to Mississippi for college, then headed back to Florida. He found himself in Los Angeles before he joined Fox News in 1996, just as the network was getting started. In 1999, Ailes picked him to host his first show, Fox Report.

4. Smith Has an Estimated Net Worth of $25 Million

Thanks to Smith’s longevity at Fox News, he’s one of the highest-paid journalists at the network. Celebrity Net Worth estimates that he has a net worth of $25 million.

Smith signed his most recent contract extension in September 2013, Fox News announced at the time. He also got a promotion to Managing Editor and was named the leader of the new Breaking News Division. Fox News also decided to re-brand his show as Shepard Smith Reporting.

“Learning and reporting the news has been my passion for 25 years,” Smith said in a statement. “I’m thrilled that Roger is trusting and empowering my team and me to bring the news to our viewers as it happens throughout the day and night. Roger’s forward-looking approach to anchoring and reporting will continue to solidify FNC’s position as the number one cable news network in the country.”

5. Smith Has Stood Out on Fox By Speaking Out Against Donald Trump

While many of Fox News anchors have been criticized for being too cozy with President Donald Trump, Smith has surprised media observers by going against the grain. For example, after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer blocked CNN and a handful of other news media organizations from attending an off-camera “gaggle” in February, Smith told his audience that CNN is not “fake news.”

“For the record, ‘fake news’ refers to stories that are created, often by entities pretending to be news organizations, solely to draw clicks and views and are based on nothing of substance,” Smith said. “In short, fake news is made up nonsense delivered for financial gain. CNN’s reporting was not fake news. Its journalists followed the same standards to which other news organizations, including Fox News, adhere.”

On March 10, he called out the White House for “too much lying and too much Russia and too much smoke.”

“The White House says, ‘Ah, he was a private citizen at the time.’ But there’s been a lot of lying,” Smith said after it was revealed that Michael Flynn was paid $530,000 in 2016 by the Turkish government. “There’s been lying about who you talk to, and by lots of people and almost inevitably and invariably, they were lying about talking to the Russians, about something. It’s too much lying and too much Russia and too much smoke. And now they’re investigating.”

On March 13, Smith said he couldn’t quote White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway any longer because of her “history” of lying after she tried to back away from her claim that Trump could be spied on with a microwave.

“And then microwaves that turn into cameras? A fact of modern life?” Smith said. “Microwaves do not turn into cameras. Fox News can now confirm microwaves heat food, cameras take pictures, [microwaves] don’t have cameras and [microwaves] cannot turn into cameras.”

And on March 17, it was Smith who said Fox News had “no evidence of any kind” that Trump was wiretapped by the Obama Administration.

Shep: “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the president of the United States was surveilled at any time in any way, full stop.” pic.twitter.com/W3XkViL4ES

Bret Baier, the host of Fox News‘ Special Report with Bret Baier, is married to Amy Halls Baier. The two have been married for 12 years and have two children, Paul and Daniel.

Baier has been at Fox News Channel since 1998, when he joined their then-new Atlanta bureau. He’s now the network’s chief political anchor and anchors the 6 p.m. ET hour every weeknight. During the 2016 presidential election, he hosted the only Democratic town hall Fox News aired, between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

1. The Couple Met on a Blind Date & Have Been Married for 12 Years

Amy Baier in 2009. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

The 38-year-old Amy met the 46-year-old Baier on a blind date in September 2001, she told Country Magazine in April 2016. Their friends thought they would be perfect together. At the time, she was a media planner for Calvin Klein and worked in Chicago.

“I’m not sure why they thought it would work, but they had a good feeling it would. They did warn me, though, to buckle up — that a life with Brett Baier would be an interesting ride,” Amy recalled.

She told Country Magazine that she was apprehensive about meeting Baier at first because she didn’t want to meet a guy living on the East Coast. She eventually agreed to meet him and their first date was a Rolling Stones concert. “Bret was such a gentleman. He’s from Atlanta and has that southern charm. We’ve been together ever since,” she told the magazine.

At first, they had a long distance relationship, traveling from Chicago to Washington, D.C. to meet. They married in 2004 and now live in Washington.

“I’ve always wanted to live in Chicago, but Bret says he would only move there if they move the nation’s capital,” Amy told Country Magazine. “I’m a total daddy’s girl with three brothers so he definitely ran the gauntlet during our courtship.”

2. Their First Son Paul Has Had 3 Open-Heart Surgeries

Baier and Amy have two young sons, Paul and Daniel. A day after Paul was born in 2007, doctors noticed that something was wrong. He had an erratic heart beat and their were two holes in his heart. He also had three other congenital defects.

“A doctor told us Paul’s heart was extremely complex,” Amy told the Today Show in 2014. “Blood was flowing the wrong way, there were two holes in Paul’s walnut-sized heart, and he had three other congenital defects. If Paul didn’t have complex surgery to restructure his heart, he wouldn’t make it.”

“It’s a powerful thing,” Baier said on Today. “We hope to make awareness about what people can do to get through it: one, accept the help that family and friends give; two, make sure you’re healthy because you’re not good for anybody if you’re not healthy; and three, think about the other end of the story. … Just think about what it’s like to get to the light at the end of the tunnel. (Paul’s) doing great!”

3. She’s the Vice Chair of the Children’s National Hospital Foundation

In 2014, the hospital honored Amy and her husband were honored with the First Prize in Philanthropy for their work with the foundation. They also helped establish the Paul Francis Baier Comprehensive Media Room, so staff has access to diagnostic images and can consult with experts around the world.

She has also helped organize the annual Children’s Ball. The 2014 ball raised $10.8 million. She is also the co-chair of the 2017 ball, which is scheduled for April 7, 2017.

4. The Baiers Owned a $3.2 Million Washington D.C. Home Inspired by Ralph Lauren

In March 2009, the Baiers bought a custom-built home by Jim Gibson in the D.C. Berkley neighborhood for $3.2 million. In 2013, the Washingtonian reported that they listed the home for sale at $3.5 million.

The home earned some notoriety because it was mostly furnished by Ralph Lauren Home. According to the Washington Post, the home has a master bedroom with two bathrooms, a workout room,a nursery and a playroom. It also has a three-car garage and wine cellar and a unique living room that has a bar and doubles as a library.

“Every time I walked into a Ralph Lauren store, I just loved the look. I wanted to replicate it for our home,” Amy told the Post in 2009. “I think our builder thought, ‘This young couple is nuts.’ But we didn’t want a bar in the basement. We wanted it out where we would use it with our friends.”

5. Her Father Is the Co-Founder of Sage Products

Amy’s father is Paul Hills, the co-founder of Sage Products, a medical devices manufacturer. She also has three siblings.

Advocate Giving notes that Paul and Barbara Hills moved their family to Barrington, Illinois in 1985. Like their daughter, they also focus on philanthropy, as the co-chairs of the Advocate Charitable Foundation’s Look Forward campaign. They raised funds to help Good Shepard Hospital.

“The Barrington area is a wonderful place for a family,” Paul Hills said in a statement to Advocate Giving. “The public schools are outstanding. Our kids enjoyed activities through sports teams, the park district, the library—and, of course, we had Good Shepherd Hospital.” He added that he has had a “passion for health care.”

Amy’s brothers, Tom and John Paul, are also the founders of Barrington Childeren’s Charities, along with their wives. Tom is still the Chairman of the Board for the organization.

“Barrington is such a great place to raise a family, and it’s so nice to see my brothers and my close girlfriends from high school settled there,” Amy told Country Magazine. “There’s something very wholesome about it. I think I have a new perspective on this now raising my children in a really fastpaced environment, which is exciting and exhilarating—I wouldn’t change that.”

Juan Williams is the Democratic voice on Fox News‘ 5 p.m. ET show The Five, alongside Bob Beckel. Williams has been at Fox News since 1997 and also contributes to Fox News Sunday and Special Report with Bret Baier.

Williams also served as a senior news analyst at NPR from 1999 to 2010. He also worked for the Washington Post for 23 years, covering presidential elections from 1980 to 2000. He also has an Emmy for the 1988 documentary Eyes on the Prize. You can follow Williams on Twitter here.

Here’s a look at Williams’ life and career.

1. Williams Has Been Married to Susan Delise Since 1978 & Has 3 Children

(Getty)

Williams has been married to Susan Delise since 1978. They have three children: daughter Ragan Williams Herlad and sons Antonio and Raphael. According to Newsmax, Susan is a former social worker, whose father was a doctor.

A 2009 NPR interview between Williams and Regan revealed that she was expecting Williams’ first grandchild at the time.

“I’m kind of hoping that my child gets a lot of you,” Regan said on NPR. “I think that you’re dedication in the way that you’ve pushed through, being black and having the goals that you have and your dreams and the way you’ve succeeded. I hope my child has that sense of motivation and drive.”

Antonio ‘Tony’ Williams is on the other end of the political spectrum, as a Republican. As The Hill reported back in 2006, Tony went into politics, working as an intern for Senator Strom Thurmond in 1996 and 1997. He was also a speechwriter for Senator Norm Coleman and ran an unsuccessful Council of the District of Columbia campaign.

2. Sean Hannity Once Pointed a Gun at Williams, but in a ‘Professional & Safe Manner,’ Hannity Claims

On March 16, CNN reported that Sean Hannity once “pulled a gun” on Williams in 2016 after an on-air argument. Three sources told CNN that Hannity pointed the gun right at Williams, even turning on the laser light. The sources said that Hannity was “just showing off,” but Williams was still disturbed by the scene.

“While discussing the issue of firearms, I showed my good friend Juan Williams my unloaded firearm in a professional and safe manner for educational purposes only,” Hannity told the LA Times. “Every precautionary procedure that I have been trained in since the age of 11 was followed. I’ve had a conceal carry permit in five states for all of my adult life. Any other interpretation of this is outright false reporting.”

Williams himself also said that the incident was “being sensationalized,” adding, “Everything was under total control throughout and I never felt like I was put in harm’s way. It was clear that Sean put my safety and security above all else and we continue to be great friends.”

CNN stood by the reporting, though. “Our reporter contacted Fox News and Juan Williams before publishing and he included their statements in his piece,” a spokesman told the LA Times. “He also reported that Fox News deemed the incident worthy of a thorough investigation by its HR and Legal departments. A network spokesperson confirmed these facts.”

3. Williams Left NPR After Telling Bill O’Reilly He Gets ‘Nervous’ When Seeing Muslims on a Plane

Williams’ departure from National Public Radio in 2010 was not without controversy. On October 21, 2010, NPR announced that it was ending his contract three days after he told Bill O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor that he gets “worried” and “nervous” when he sees a Muslim on a plane.

“Look, Bill, I’m not a bigot,” Williams said. “You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

“Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997,” Ailes said in a statement to the Tribune. “He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.”

Almost a year after the NPR situation, and just as Williams was releasing his book Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate, his wife Susan told Newsmax that, “The NPR people were hypocrites because they are supposed to be the liberals who are accepting of all kinds of people and inclusive, and they were the most exclusive group in my experience of going to events related to work that I have ever seen.”

In 1991, Williams defended then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, who was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Hill. According to the American Journalism Review, the Washington Post then dragged its feet on reporting that female staffers at the paper had accused Williams himself of sexual harassment. After a local NBC affiliate reported on the allegations, the Post finally reported on it.

In November 1991, The Washington Post reported that Williams wrote an open letter to the newsroom, apologizing for his conduct. Before the letter was published, Williams worked out of the office for two weeks. According to the Post, seven women said that Williams made sexually explicit comments to them over several years.

“It pained me to learn during the investigation that I had offended some of you,” Williams wrote. “I have said so repeatedly in the last few weeks, and repeat here: some of my verbal conduct was wrong, I now know that, and I extend my sincerest apology to those whom I offended. I have committed to Post management, and I commit to you — and to myself — to change my ways.”

When Roger Ailes was accused of sexual harassment, Brietbart reported that Williams was one of 50 Fox News contributors who were willing to leave if Ailes was ousted. Ailes did resign, but Williams remains at the network.

5. Williams Has an Estimated Net Worth of $2 Million

Celebrity Net Worth estimates that Williams has an estimated net worth of $2 million. The three-year, $2 million contract he signed after NPR let him go expired in 2013. Williams is still at Fox News, even after Bob Beckel returned in January.

Judge Jeanine Pirro is a Fox News contributor who has President Donald Trump‘s endorsement. She’s the host of Justice with Judge Jeanine, and frequently appears on other Fox News shows. After being with the network for over a decade, she has a net worth in the millions.

On March 25, Trump told his 27.1 million Twitter followers to watch her show. Hours later, the 65-year-old Pirro opened with the declaration that, “Paul Ryan needs to step down as leader of the House” after the Republicans weren’t able to pass their replacement for the Affordable Care Act on March 24. The bill was pulled before a vote could even take place.

Here’s what you need to know about Pirro’s net worth.

1. Pirro Has an Estimated Net Worth of $5 Million

Pirro was born in Elmira, New York, which is close to Pennsylvania’s north border with the Empire State. She graduated from the State University of New York, Buffalo and earned her J.D. at Albany Law School of Union University.

In 1975, she married Albert Pirro. In June 2000, he was convicted of tax fraud charges and was sentenced to 11 months in prison. In 2007, the couple confirmed to the New York Daily News that they were getting divorced. The divorce was finalized in 2013.

The couple have two children together – Christi Pirro and Alexander Pirro. Christi is currently an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

2. Pirro Tried to Sell Her Custom-Built Mansion for $4.75 Million

Jeanine Pirro at Trump Tower on November 17. (Getty)

In July 2015, LoHud.com reported that Pirro listed her custom-built mansion in Harrison, New York for $4.995 million. She has struggled to sell the property and re-listed it a year later. In June 2016, Variety reported that the asking price was lowered to $4.75 million.

The brick house was built in 1988 and it cost Pirro and her husband just $425,000 to have it built.

As LoHud.com notes, the home played a big part in Albert Pirro’s federal tax fraud case. He claimed that several major purchases he made for the homoe and himself were business expenses, including the $45,000 remote-controlled electronic driveway gates. He also claimed that $50,000 worth of custom woodwork on the home as business expenses.

The house has 12 rooms, including a family room with a fireplace, a library and a two-story entry hall.

According to Variety, the house was represented by Wendy Alpher at Sotheby’s, but it’s no longer listed on her page.

The show only airs once a week – Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET. For most networks, Saturday night is a “dead zone,” but the series has done well in the ratings. AdWeek reports that the show saw double-digit growth in total viewers and in the 25-54 demographic during the third quarter of 2016, compared to the same period in 2015.

Fox has also picked Pirro to host You The Jury, a reality TV series that will debut on April 7 at 9 p.m. ET. It’s an unscripted series that gives viewers the chance to decide civil cases from home.

5. Donald Trump Donated $20,000 to Her Failed 2006 Bid to Become New York Attorney General

Pirro rose to prominence in New York politics through her career in Westchester County. First, she was an Assistant District Attorney in 1975. In 1990, she became the first woman ever elected to be a Westchester County Court Judge. In 1993, she became the first woman ever elected to be Westchester County District Attorney and held the position until 2005. During her legal career, she became well-known for her fight against domestic violence, eventually chairing Governor George Pataki’s New York State Commission on Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board from 1997 to January 2006.

After her husband was convicted on tax fraud charges in 2000, Pirro refused to resign as Westchester County D.A. According to the New York Post, the office earned her $137,770 a year in 2000. However, she led a lavish lifestyle thanks to her husband’s lobbying and business career.

During her last year as D.A., Democrats criticized Pirro for paying her security escort James O’Donnell $87,430 in overtime, notes the New York Times. The Journal News noted that O’Donnell’s regular annual salary was $101,460 at the time. The Journal News also uncovered that he made $64,227 in overtime in 2004 and $43,920 in 2003, even as Pirro gave pink slips to six prosecutors to cut the budget.

“She’s district attorney 24/7, and she’s called at all hours of the day or night, and she needs this security,” a spokeswoman for Pirro told the Times. “She’s responded to crime scenes at all times. There’s no time when she’s not district attorney.”

Pirro never achieved her dream of serving in higher office. In 2005, she ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator for New York, but her campaign was torpedoed by an infamous campaign announcement speech, where she misplaced a page of her speech. In 2006, she was the Republican nominee for the New York State Attorney General, but lost to Andrew Cuomo.

Her unsuccessful 2005 and 2006 campaigns had a famous donor: Donald Trump. As The Observer reported in April 2011, Trump donated $20,000 to Pirro’s 2006 A.G. campaign and later donated over $20,000 to Cuomo’s campaign to defeat her.

Bill O’Reilly, the Fox News commentator, earns millions each year from the network just by telling people what he thinks. But he’s also a best-selling author. We look at how much he’s made and what he does with his money.

Greg Gutfeld, a co-host on Fox News‘ The Five, is married to Elena Moussa. The two have been married since December 2004 and do not have any children.

The 52-year-old Gutfeld joined Fox News in 2007 and now appears on three different shows. On the weekends, he has his own The Greg Gutfeld Show at 10:00 p.m. ET, and he’s a regular co-host on The Five during the week at 5:00 p.m. ET. He also makes weekly appearances on The O’Reilly Factor with Bill O’Reilly. He was previously the host of the late night talk show Red Eye from 2007 to 2015.

1. Moussa Was a Model Before Serving as a Maxim Russia Photo Editor

The 5-foot-10 Moussa of Russia was a model before she became a photo editor for Maxim Russia. When the two got married, The New York Post described Moussa as “a gorgeous former runway model-turned-photo editor of Maxim Russia.”

Gutfeld and the 35-year-old Moussa met while they both worked at different Maxim magazines. From 2004 to 2006, Gutfeld was the editor of Maxim U.K. Gutfeld’s contract was not renewed because circulation was down 16.2 percent in the second half of 2005, Campaign reported at the time. Before he worked at Maxim U.K., he was editor in chief at Stuff Magazine.

2. They Dated For 5 Months Before They Got Married in December 2004

“When I saw her, I said to the editor of Maxim Russia, ‘Who is this woman?’ And I foolishly hit on her for three days. She was pretty cold to me, and finally I asked her out on a date,” Gutfeld told the Daily Beast. “And then she moved to London to be with me.”

3. She’s Currently the Owner of a Fashion Shop Called ‘Moussa Project’

As her LinkedIn profile notes, Moussa is currently the owner of Moussa Project, a store she established in May 2011. The company’s Facebook page has over 4,800 likes and many of the fashion designs are displayed on Instagram.

4. She Doesn’t Have Any Children

Gutfeld and Moussa do not have any children, although Moussa can be frequently seen with the children of her friends and family on Instagram.

She clearly takes advantage of not being a parent by getting as much traveling in as possible. Her Instagram photos show off plenty of trips to beaches and around the country. She also shares her interest in painting with her nearly 7,000 followers on Instagram. Last summer, she shared photos from a trip to Tokyo.

Gutfeld, who has become known for his own brand of sarcasm, started in journalism at The American Spectator, before joining Prevention Magazine. He also wrote for Men’s Health before joining Stuff and Maxim. After leaving Maxim, he became a contributor to The Huffington Post. He left the site in 2007, when he joined Fox News full-time.

Gutfeld has written seven books, with his latest, How To Be Right: The Art of Being Persuasively Correct, coming out in 2015.

During an appearance on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning, Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly said he can’t listen to what California Congresswoman Maxine Waters has to say because she has a distracting “James Brown wig.” The comment was seen by many as racist. O’Reilly later issued an apology, saying that he made a “jest about her hair that was dumb.”

After Fox News played a clip from Waters’ Monday speech on the floor of Congress, O’Reilly told the Fox & Friends co-host that he “didn’t hear a word she said.”

“I was looking at the James Brown wig,” O’Reilly said, while his co-hosts laughed hysterically. “If we have a picture of James Brown… It’s the same one.”

The one Fox & Friends co-host who didn’t think any of this was funny was Ainsley Earhardt, who told O’Reilly that he can’t criticize a woman for her looks. “I think she’s very attractive,” Earhardt added.

“I love James Brown, but it’s the same hair, James Brown — alright, the godfather of soul — had,” O’Reilly insisted. “Whatever it is, I just couldn’t get by it.”

Bill O’Reilly sent the following statement to Heavy.com:

As I have said many times, I respect Congresswoman Maxine Waters for being sincere in her beliefs. I said that again today on Fox & Friends, calling her ‘old school.’ Unfortunately, I also made a jest about her hair which was dumb. I apologize.

Several users on Twitter accused O’Reilly of being racist for this comment.

O’Reilly has been accused of racism in the past. In December, he told his viewers that the Left only wanted to abolish the Electoral College after Trump’s victory to take power away from the “white establishment.”

Waters, who has been in Congress since 1991, delivered a speech on the House floor Monday, suggesting that President Donald Trump’s supporters aren’t as patriotic as those who criticize him. She’s also been an outspoken Trump critic herself on Twitter. On March 21, she told her followers to “get ready for impeachment.”

“He won,” Waters told Elle Magazine. “And so I’m out to get him. And when he talked about grabbing women? Okay? I’m out to get him. I’m gonna see him out of office. And I think it’s going to happen. Get ready for impeachment.”

Waters has also called for an independent investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes‘ decision to share information with the White House before the other members of the committee.

Trump surrogate Rep.Nunes should be ashamed of himself & has no business leading the #Trumprussia investigation. We need an indpt commission

Two black employees at Fox News in New York City have filed a lawsuit against the company in New York State Supreme Court in Bronx County, court documents stated Tuesday.

The plaintiffs in the case, Tichaona Brown and Tabrese Wright accuse a white female supervisor at Fox News of making racist and stereotypical remarks for years.

The lawsuit is seeking damages for “the appalling racial discrimination which they suffered while employed by Fox,” the complaint filed to the N.Y. Supreme Court said. It stems from executives at Fox News being aware of the discrimination but “doing nothing to put an end to it and intentionally turning a blind eye,” the complaint alleges.

For the full 30-page complaint filed with the Supreme Court, read the document below:

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs said they “suffered years-long relentless racial animus at the hands of their white supervisor, Judith Slater.”

Slater was an 18-year veteran employee at Fox News and was the senior vice president of accounting and a comptroller. In the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that Slater used stereotypes to mock and complain to black employees.

A few of the examples listed in the suit say that Slater said black employees “mispronounce the words ‘mother,’ ‘father’ and ‘month’ and ‘ask’ by pronouncing them as ‘muva,’ ‘fava,’ ‘monf,’ and ‘axe.’” It further stated that Slater “forced” black employees to practice saying the words the correct way in front of white employees at Fox.

In addition, the complaint says that Slater “openly claimed” that the “Black Lives Matter” movement is “extremely racist” and asked what would happen if there were a movement called “White Lives Matter.” The lawsuit also states that Slater talked about having a fear that black people “want to physically harm white people.”

Those are only a few of the allegations. Others include racist comments about NFL player Ray Rice’s assault of his girlfriend and O.J. Simpson.

2. Slater Was Fired From Fox News After Last Week

We take any complaint of this nature very seriously and took the appropriate action in investigating and firing Ms. Slater within two weeks of this being brought to our attention. There is no place for abhorrent behavior like this at Fox News.

However, the lawsuit alleges that Slater “was not terminated because she engaged in discriminatory conduct — Fox was willing to let her get away with that for years.” It continued that Slater lost her job after 18 years because “Fox knew this would become a public matter and wanted to salvage its reputation.”

It claims that in statements made to the press, Fox said it took “appropriate action” in response to Brown and Wright’s complaints.

3. Brown Ended Up Being Fired & Wright Was Demoted at Fox News

Also in the complaint, Brown alleges that she was fired from Fox News because of bringing the racist remarks to light. It also said that Wright was demoted from the company.

However, a Fox News spokesperson claimed that isn’t the case. Instead, Brown is still employed with the company while Wright made a “lateral move” within the company.

The complaint goes on to say that Fox News “even admitted that it demoted Ms. Wright because she brought this lawsuit.” It claims that in the company’s statement about the employee moves, it owned up to demoting her.

This lateral transfer is occurring so that she no longer has access to Fox News confidential information that she could use in her lawsuit.

These aren’t the first accusations against Fox News alleging discrimination or sexual harassment.

In July 2016, chairman and CEO Roger Ailes resigned from the position after an internal investigation. Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson alleged that Ailes sexually harassed her numerous times while she worked for the company.

Investigators into the matter interviewed former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who was reportedly part of a “small group of employees who resisted a campaign to rally support for Mr. Ailes,” The New York Times wrote.

Since the lawsuit was filed, about 10 women came forward with stories of inappropriate conduct performed by Ailes. He was replaced as the head of the company by Rupert Murdoch.

Ailes wrote in a letter to Murdoch how he didn’t want to become a distraction at the company.

Having spent 20 years building this historic business, I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that Fox News and Fox Business continue to lead our industry

5. The Platiffs’ Lawyers Are Also Representing 2 New York Times Employees In a Discrimination Lawsuit

One of the attorneys acting on behalf of the two Fox News employee is Douglas H. Wigdor, a lawyer that’s been involved in numerous high-profile lawsuits. He and Jeanne Christensen of the Wigdor law firm have taken the case.

The two black women in their 60s, Ernestine Grant and Marjorie Walker, allege that the workplace under The Times Chief Executive Mark Thompson “has become an environment rife with discrimination based on age, race and gender.”

But a New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said in a statement that the lawsuit is “entirely without merit.”

This lawsuit contains a series of recycled, scurrilous and unjustified attacks on both Mark Thompson and Meredith Levien. It also completely distorts the realities of the work environment at The New York Times. We strongly disagree with any claim that The Times, Mr. Thompson or Ms. Levien have discriminated against any individual or group of employees.

The two women, who are employed in the advertising department at the newspaper, are seeking a class-action lawsuit.

The complaint filed in court alleges that the two employees at The Times experienced discrimination and were retaliated against when they complained about it.

Wigdor said in a statement of his own about the lawsuit that the discrimination is a “double standard” for The Times.

It is astonishing that a news organization that regularly promotes liberal social viewpoints could have a double standard when it comes to blatantly discriminating and retaliating against its own hard-working and dedicated employees.